Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.

New York, 1909. Balkline billiards champion Calvin Demarest, six years before he was committed to an insane asylum after attacking his wife with a knife. He died in 1925 at the age of 37. View full size. 8x10 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. You can see Calvin in action at the pool table here.

Chicago, April 1943. More of those yellow Proviso rails. "General view of one of the departure yards at Chicago & North Western RR's Proviso Yard." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the OWI. View full size.

December 1941. "The ordnance department must satisfy itself that every halftrac scout car turned over to it by a Midwest manufacturer is fit for Army duty. The department's own inspector gives it a thorough going over from bumper to bumper. White Motor Company, Cleveland, Ohio." View full size. 4x5 nitrate negative by Alfred Palmer for the Office of War Information.

February 1942. "Don't let pretty labels on cans mislead you, but learn the difference between grades and the relative economy of buying larger instead of small cans. The Pure Food Law requires packers to state exact quantity and quality of canned products, so take advantage of this information and buy only after thorough inspection of labels." View full size. Medium format nitrate negative by Ann Rosener for the OWI. This woulda made a great Kodachrome.

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.